Friday, February 27, 2009

A Good Day for Froggy

I had actually forgotten what it looked like to see Froggy putting food in her mouth. She's been snacking and drinking milk, but not eating meals.

Today, she had her supplement/milk for breakfast then a big lunch and a big dinner! And this is probably too much info, but she also had a big poop. I know, I know.... but this is a huge deal when your kid stops doing those basic functions we all take for granted.

I emailed Froggy's neurologist, and there really isn't an alternative seizure med, so we'll stick with the Lamictal and hope her body adjusts. In the meantime, FD and I are waking up a couple times a night to give her a milk/supplement to help add some weight to our skinny minnie!

Froggy, FD and I played hookie today and walked down to the Santa Monica Pier for a ride on the carousel. It was another gorgeous day in California-land. And Froggy was an ANGEL for her first Tobi treatment tonight. Whew. I love this kid!

Since her treatments are so long now, I bought a bunch of 99-cent store presents, and when she finishes a treatment, she gets to reach in a bag and pick out a toy. So far it's working. I realize bribery isn't the best parenting tactic, but how DO you keep a three year old cooperative for two hours a day? I'm also renting/buying videos to keep her busy for the long antibiotic haul. Wish us luck! I am soooo pumped for knocking out these nasty lung bugs!!! We want Froggy's little lungs to be perfect when the cure comes!

Max is a big snacker -- I keep package of peanuts, crackers, fruit snacks in the back seat of my car and usually grab a juice box or water bottle, too.

I also take him grocery shopping and let him pick out items for his snack cupboard. I know a lot of time we end up wasting food because of this, but it's nice to know that he requests chips (loves salt & vinegar or dill pickle), that I have them on hand.

He told us a couple weeks ago that if he eats a lot of snacks, we can call him snackboy. His dad decided to call him "Snack-Tor" instead. :)

We've also gotten up in the middle of the night to feed him. Started when he was a baby and we were instructed to feed him every 3-4 hours. He actually ate better when we did the "sleep feeding" thing. And to this day, I feed him a glass of Carnation instant breakfast made with cream and whole milk thru a straw every morning before he wakes up and goes off to preschool for another breakfast with his friends.

Whatever works! I once read an article about how drinking juice causes childhood obesity, so I started serving him white grape juice with his after preschool snack. :) Liza

Sorry I left such a novel, but thought I'd comment on the treatments as well. Max was/is a fan of spngebob, basically we'd let him what whatever he wanted cartoon-wise during his vest treatments. He still would give us trouble from time to time and tell "Vesty that he didn't love him".

My husband decided last year that maybe a videogame system was in order -- I thought Max was too young. But it was a God send. Max would ASK when he could do vesty and would do extra treatments. We only play video games when its treatment time.

Realize froggy is still a bit too young. Max started playing Lego Star Wars when he was 4 and has graduated to some other games. Just a thought for the future.

one of the things my mother did during treatments (4 times a day when I was a kid) was to read to me. I would pick a book and we would read it throughout treatment until we finished the book, then she would pick a book and we would do the same thing. Just kept switching back and forth between her pick and mine. It taught me to read at a pretty early age and I was encouraged to do a lot of the reading as well.

I guess I should mention the obvious that all of this reading was done out loud. I don't know how Froggy is for stories, but if not now, perhaps in the near future it will be a feasible option.

Some of the other things we'd do were play games like "I Spy" or that one that goes something like "I'm thinking of a word that begins with the letter ___". Those might be a little too complicated for Froggy right now, but it's something to think about for the future.

Anyway, there are a lot of options that make the treatments not only tolerable but fairly enjoyable. Sounds like you're all doing well so far, good luck.